This historical psalm was evidently composed by
King David, for the first fifteen verses of it were used as a
hymn at the carrying up of the ark from the house of Obededom,
and we read in 1Ch 16:7, "Then on that day David delivered
first this psalm to thank the Lord, into the hand of Asaph and
his brethren." Such a song was suitable for the occasion,
for it describes the movements of the Lord's people and his
guardian care over them in every place, and all this on account
of the covenant of which the ark, then removing, was a symbol.
Our last psalm sang the opening chapters of Genesis, and this
takes up its closing chapters and conducts us into Exodus and
Numbers.
The first verses are full of joyful praise, and call upon the
people to extol Jehovah, Ps 105:1-7; then the earliest days of
the infant nation, are described, Ps 105:8-15; the going into
Egypt, Ps 105:16-23, the coming forth from it with the Lord's
outstretched arm, Ps 105:24-38, the journeying through the
wilderness and the entrance into Canaan.
We are now among the long Psalms, as at other
times we have been among the short ones. These varying lengths
of the sacred poems should teach us not to lay down any law
either of brevity or prolixity in either prayer or praise. Short
petitions and single verses of hymns are often the best for
public occasions, but there are seasons when a whole night of
wrestling or an entire day of psalm slinging will be none too
long. The Spirit is ever free in his operations, and is not to
be confined with, the rules of conventional propriety. The wind
bloweth as it listeth, and at one time rushes in short and rapid
sweep, while at another it continues to refresh the earth hour
after hour with its reviving breath.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. O give thanks unto the Lord. Jehovah is the
author of all our benefits, therefore let him have all our
gratitude. Call upon his name, or call him by his name; proclaim
his titles and fill the world with his renown. Make known his
deeds among the people, or among the nations. Let the heathen
hear of our God, that they may forsake their idols and learn to
worship him. The removal of the ark was a fit occasion for
proclaiming aloud the glories of the Great King, and for
publishing to all mankind the greatness of his doings, for it
had a history in connection with the nations which it was well
for them to remember with reverence. The rest of the psalm is a
sermon, of which these first verses constitute the text.
Verse 2. Sing unto him. Bring your best
thoughts and express them in the best language to the sweetest
sounds. Take care that your singing is "unto him, "and
not merely for the sake of the music or to delight the ears of
others. Singing is so delightful an exercise that it is a pity
so much or it should be wasted upon trifles or worse than
trifles. O ye who can emulate the nightingale, and almost rival
the angels, we do most earnestly pray that your hearts may be
renewed that so your floods of melody may be poured out at your
Maker's and Redeemer's feet. Talk ye of all his wondrous works.
Men love to speak of marvels, and others are generally glad to
hear of surprising things; surely the believer in the living God
has before him the most amazing series of wonders ever heard of
or imagined, his themes are inexhaustible and they are such as
should hold men spellbound. We ought to have more of this
"talk": no one would be blamed as a Mr. Talkative if
this were his constant theme. Talk ye, all of you: you all know
something by experience of the marvellous loving kindness of the
Lord—"talk ye." In this way, by all dwelling on this
blessed subject, "all" his wondrous works will be
published. One cannot do it, nor ten thousand times ten
thousand, but if all speak to the Lord's honour, they will at
least come nearer to accomplishing the deed. We ought to have a
wide range when conversing upon the Lord's doings, and should
not shut our eyes to any part of them. Talk ye of his wondrous
works in creation and in grace, in judgment and in mercy, in
providential interpositions and in spiritual comforting; leave
out none, or it will be to your damage. Obedience to this verse
will give every sanctified tongue some work to do: the trained
musicians can sing, and the commoner voices can talk, and in
both ways the Lord will receive a measure of the thanks due to
him, and his deeds will be made known among the people.
Verse 3. Glory ye in his holy name. Make it a
matter of joy that you have such a God. His character and
attributes are such as will never make you blush to call him
your God. Idolaters may well be ashamed of the actions
attributed to their fancied deities, their names are foul with
lust and red with blood, but Jehovah is wholly glorious; every
deed of his will bear the strictest scrutiny; his name is holy,
his character is holy, his law is holy, his government is holy,
his influence is holy. In all this we may make our boast, nor
can any deny our right to do so. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. If they have not yet found him so fully as
they desire, yet even to be allowed and enabled to seek after
such a God is cause for gladness, To worship the Lord and seek
his kingdom and righteousness is the sure way to happiness, mad
indeed there is no other. True seekers throw their hearts into
the engagement, hence their hearts receive joy; according to the
text they have a permit to rejoice and they have the promise
that they shall do so. How happy all these sentences are! Where
can men's ears be when they talk of the gloom of psalm singing?
What worldly songs are fuller of real mirth? One hears the sound
of the timbrel and the harp in every verse. Even seekers find
bliss in the name of the Lord Jesus, but as for the finders, we
may say with the poet,
"And those who find thee find a bliss,
Nor tongue nor pen Call show:
The love of Jesus what it is,
None but his loved ones know."
Verse 4. Seek the Loan and his strength. Put
yourselves under his protection. Regard him not as a puny God,
but look unto his omnipotence, and seek to know the power of his
grace. We all need strength; let us look to the strong One for
it. We need infinite power to bear us safely to our eternal
resting place, let us look to the Almighty Jehovah for it. Seek
his face evermore. Seek, seek, seek, we have the word three
times, and though the words differ in the Hebrew, the sense is
the same. It must be a blessed thing to seek, or we should not
be thus stirred up to do so. To seek his face is to desire his
presence, his smile, his favour consciously enjoyed. First we
seek him, then his strength and then his face; from the personal
reverence, we pass on to the imparted power, and then to the
conscious favour. This seeking must never cease—the more we
know the more we must seek to know. Finding him, we must
"our minds inflame to seek him more and more." He
seeks spiritual worshippers, and spiritual worshippers seek him;
they are therefore sure to meet face to face ere long.
Verse 5. Remember his marvellous works that he hath
done. Memory is never better employed than upon such topics.
Alas, we are far more ready to recollect foolish and evil things
than to retain in our minds the glorious deeds of Jehovah. If we
would keep these in remembrance our faith would be stronger, our
gratitude warmer, our devotion more fervent, and our love more
intense. Shame upon us that we should let slip what it would
seem impossible to forget. We ought to need no exhortation to
remember such wonders, especially as he has wrought them all on
the behalf of his people. His wonders, and the judgments of his
mouth—these also should be had in memory. The judgments of his
mouth are as memorable as the marvels of his band. God had but
to speak and the enemies of his people were sorely afflicted;
his threats were not mere words, but smote his adversaries
terribly. As the Word of God is the salvation of his saints, so
is it the destruction of the ungodly: out of his mouth goeth a
two edged sword with which he will slay the wicked.
Verse 6. O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye
children of Jacob his chosen. Should all the world forget,
ye are bound to remember. Your father Abraham saw his wonders
and judgments upon Sodom, and upon the kings who came from far,
and Jacob also saw the Lord's marvellous works in visiting the
nations with famine, yet providing for his chosen a choice
inheritance in a goodly land; therefore let the children praise
their father's God. The Israelites were the Lord's elect nation,
and they were bound to imitate their progenitor, who was the
Lord's faithful servant and walked before him in holy faith: the
seed of Abraham should not be unbelieving, nor should the
children of so true a servant become rebels. As we read this
pointed appeal to the chosen seed we should recognise the
special claims which the Lord has upon ourselves, since we too
have been favoured above all others. Election is not a couch for
case, but an argument for sevenfold diligence. If God has set
his choice upon us, let us aim to be choice men.
Verse 7. He is the Lord our God. Blessed be his
name. Jehovah condescends to be our God. This sentence contains
a greater wealth of meaning than all the eloquence of orators
can compass, and there is more joy in it than in all the sonnets
of them that make merry. His judgments are in all the earth, or
in all the land, for the whole of the country was instructed by
his law, ruled by his statutes, and protected by his authority.
What a joy it is that our God is never absent from us, he is
never nonresident, never an absentee ruler, his judgments are in
all the places in which we dwell. If the second clause of this
verse refers to the whole world, it is very beautiful to see the
speciality of Israel's election united with the universality of
Jehovah's reign. Not alone to the one nation did the Lord reveal
himself, but his glory flashed around the globe. It is wonderful
that the Jewish people should have become so exclusive, and have
so utterly lost the missionary spirit, for their sacred
literature is full of the broad and generous sympathies which
are so consistent with the worship of "the God of the whole
earth." Nor is it less painful to observe that among a
certain class of believers in God's election of grace there
lingers a hard exclusive spirit, fatal to compassion and zeal.
It would be well for these also to remember that their Redeemer
is "the Saviour of all men, specially of them that
believe."
Verse 8. He hath remembered his covenant for ever.
Here is the basis of all his dealings with his people: he had
entered into covenant with them in their father Abraham, and to
this covenant he remained faithful. The exhortation to remember
(Ps 105:5) receives great force from the fact that God has
remembered. If the Lord has his promise in memory surely we
ought not to forget the wonderful manner in which he keeps it.
To us it should be matter for deepest joy that never in any
instance has the Lord been unmindful of his covenant
engagements, nor will he be so world without end. O that we were
as mindful of them as he is. The word which he commanded to a
thousand generations. This is only an amplification of the
former statement, and serves to set before us the immutable
fidelity of the Lord during the changing generations of men. His
judgments are threatened upon the third and fourth generations
of them that hate him, but his love runs on for ever, even to
"a thousand generations." His promise is here said to
be commanded, or vested with all the authority of a law. It is a
proclamation from a sovereign, the firman of an Emperor whose
laws shall stand fast in every jot and tittle though heaven and
earth shall pass away. Therefore let us give thanks unto the
Lord and talk of all his wondrous works, so wonderful for their
faithfulness and truth.
Verse 9. Which covenant he made with Abraham.
When the victims were divided and the burning lamp passed
between the pieces (Gen. 15.) then the Lord made, or ratified,
the covenant with the patriarch. This was a solemn deed,
performed not without blood, and the cutting in pieces of the
sacrifice; it points us to the greater covenant which in Christ
Jesus is signed, sealed, and ratified, that it may stand fast
for ever and ever. And his oath unto Isaac. Isaac did not in
vision see the solemn making of the covenant, but the Lord
renewed unto him his oath (Ge 26:2-5). This was enough for him,
and must have established his faith in the Most High. We have
the privilege of seeing in our Lord Jesus both the sacrificial
seal, and the eternal oath of God, by which every promise of the
covenant is made yea and amen to all the chosen seed.
Verse 10. And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a
law. Jacob in his wondrous dream (Ge 28:10-15) received a
pledge that the Lord's mode of procedure with him would be in
accordance with covenant relations: for said Jehovah, "I
will not leave thee till I have done that which I have spoken to
thee of." Thus, if we may so speak with all reverence, the
covenant became a law unto the Lord himself by which he bound
himself to act. O matchless condescension, that the most free
and sovereign Lord should put himself under covenant bonds to
Iris chosen, and make a law for himself, though he is above all
law. And to Israel for an everlasting covenant. When he changed
Jacob's name he did not change his covenant, but it is written,
"he blessed him there" (Ge 32:29), and it was with the
old blessing, according to the unchangeable word of abiding
grace.
Verse 11. Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of
Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. This repetition of the
great covenant promise is recorded in Ge 35:9-12 in connection
with the change of Jacob's name, and very soon after that
slaughter of the Shechemites, which had put the patriarch into
such great alarm and caused him to use language almost identical
with that of the next verse. When they were but a few men in
number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. Jacob said to
Simeon and Levi, "Ye have troubled me to make me to stink
among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the
Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather
themselves together against me, and slay me, and I shall be
destroyed, and my house." Thus the fears of the man of God
declared themselves, and they were reasonable if we look only at
the circumstances in which he was placed, but they are soon seen
to be groundless when we remember that the covenant promise,
which guaranteed the possession of the land, necessarily implied
the preservation of the race to whom the promise was made. We
often fear where no fear is. The blessings promised to the seed
of Abraham were not dependent upon the number of his
descendants, or their position in this world. The covenant was
made with one man, and consequently the number could never be
less, and that one man was not the owner of a foot of soil in
all the land, save only a cave in which to bury his dead, and
therefore his seed could not have less inheritance than he. The
smallness of a church, and the poverty of its members, are no
barriers to the divine blessing, if it be sought earnestly by
pleading the promise. Were not the apostles few, and the
disciples feeble, when the good work began? Neither because we
are strangers and foreigners here below, as our fathers were,
are we in any the more danger: we are like sheep in the midst of
wolves, but the wolves cannot hurt us, for our shepherd is near.
Verse 12. When they were but a few men in number.
bpom ytm. Literally, "homines numeri", men of number;
so few as easily to be numbered: in opposition to what their
posterity afterwards were, as the sand of the sea, without
number. Samuel Chandler.
Verse 13. When they went from one nation, to
another, from one Kingdom to another people. Migrating as
the patriarchs did from the region of one tribe to the country
of another they were singularly preserved. The little wandering
family might have been cut off root and branch had not a special
mandate been issued from the throne for their protection. It was
not the gentleness of their neighbours which screened them; they
were hedged about by the mysterious guardianship of heaven.
Whether in Egypt, or in Philistia, or in Canaan, the heirs of
the promises, dwelling in their tents, were always secure.
Verse 14. He suffered no man to do them wrong.
Men cannot wrong us unless he suffers them to do so; the
greatest of them must wait his permission before they can place
a finger upon us. The wicked would devour us if they could, but
they cannot even cheat us of a farthing without divine
sufferance. Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes. Pharaoh and
Abimelech must both be made to respect the singular strangers
who had come to sojourn in their land; the greatest kings are
very second rate persons with God in comparison with his chosen
servants.
Verse 15. Saying, touch not mine anointed, and do
my prophets no harm. Abraham and his seed were in the midst
of the world a generation of priests anointed to present
sacrifice unto the most High God; since to them the oracles were
committed, they were also the prophets of mankind; and they were
kings too—a royal priesthood; hence they had received a
threefold anointing. Their holy office surrounded them with a
sacredness which rendered it sacrilege to molest them. The Lord
was pleased to impress the wild tribes of Canaan with a
respectful awe of the pious strangers who had come to abide with
them, so that they came not near them to do them ill. The words
here mentioned may not have been actually spoken, but the
impression of awe which fell upon the nations is thus poetically
described. God will not have those touched who have been set
apart unto himself He calls them his own, saying, "Mine
anointed" he declares that he has "anointed"
them to be prophets, priests, and kings unto himself, and yet
again he claims them as his prophets—"Do my prophets
no harm." All through the many years in which the three
great fathers dwelt in Canaan no man was able to injure them;
they were not able to defend themselves by force of arms; but
the eternal God was their refuge. Even so at this present time
the remnant according to the election of grace cannot be
destroyed, nay, nor so much as touched, without the divine
consent. Against the church of Christ the gates of hell cannot
prevail. In all this we see reasons for giving thanks unto the
Lord, and proclaiming his name according to the exhortation of
the first verse of the Psalm. Here ends the portion which was
sung at the moving of the ark: its fitness to be used for such a
purpose is very manifest, for the ark was the symbol both of the
covenant and of that mystic dwelling of God with Israel which
was at once her glory and her defence. None could touch the
Lord's peculiar ones, for the Lord was among them, flaming forth
in majesty between the cherubims. The presence of God having
remained with his chosen ones while they sojourned in Canaan, it
did not desert them when they were called to go down into Egypt.
They did not go there of their own choice, but under divine
direction, and hence the Lord prepared their way and prospered
them until he saw fit to conduct them again to the land of
promise.
Verse 16. Moreover he called for a famine upon the
land. He had only to call for it as a man calls for his
servant, and it came at once. How grateful ought we to be that
he does not often call in that terrible servant of his, so
meagre and gaunt, and grim, so pitiless to the women and the
children, so bitter to the strong men, who utterly fail before
it. He brake the whole staff of bread. Man's feeble life cannot
stand without its staff—if bread fail him he fails. As a
cripple with a broken staff falls to the ground, so does man
when broad no longer sustains him. To God it is as easy to make
a famine as to break a stall He could make that famine
universal, too, so that all countries should be in like case:
then would the race of man fall indeed, and its staff would be
broken for ever. There is this sweet comfort in the matter, that
the Lord has wise ends to serve even by famine: he meant his
people to go down into Egypt, and the scarcity of food was his
method of leading them there, for "they heard that there
was corn in Egypt."
Verse 17. He sent a man before them, even Joseph.
He was the advance guard and pioneer for the whole clan. His
brethren sold him, but God sent him. Where the hand of the
wicked is visible God's hand may be invisibly at work,
overruling their malice. No one was more of a man, or more fit
to lead the van than Joseph: an interpreter of dreams was
wanted, and his brethren had said of him, "Behold, this
dreamer cometh." Who was sold for a servant, or rather for
a slave. Joseph's journey into Egypt was not so costly as
Jonah's voyage when he paid his own fare: his free passage was
provided by the Midianites, who also secured his introduction to
a great officer of state by handing him over as a Slave. His way
to a position in which he could feed his family lay through the
pit, the slaver's caravan, the slave market and the prison, and
who shall deny but what it was the right way, the surest way,
the wisest way, and perhaps the shortest way. Yet assuredly it
seemed not so. Were we to send a man on such an errand we should
furnish him with money—Joseph goes as a pauper; we should
clothe him with authority—Joseph goes as a slave; we should
leave him at full liberty—Joseph is a bondman: yet money would
have been of little use when corn was so dear, authority would
have been irritating rather than influential with Pharaoh, and
freedom might not have thrown Joseph into connection with
Pharaoh's captain and his other servants, and so the knowledge
of his skill in interpretation might not have reached the
monarch's ear. God way is the way. Our Lord's path to his
mediatorial throne ran by the cross of Calvary; our road to
glory runs by the rivers of grief.
Verse 18. Whose feet they hurt with fetters.
From this we learn a little more of Joseph's sufferings than we
find in the book of Genesis: inspiration had not ceased, and
David was as accurate an historian as Moses, for the same Spirit
guided his pen. He was laid in iron, or "into iron came his
soul." The prayer book version, "the iron entered into
his soul, "is ungrammatical, but probably expresses much
the same truth. His fetters hurt his mind as well as his body,
and well did Jacob say, "The archers shot at him, and
sorely grieved him." Under the cruelly false accusation,
which he could not disprove, his mind was, as it were, belted
and bolted around with iron, and had not the Lord been with him
he might have sunk under his sufferings. In all this, and a
thousand things besides, he was an admirable type of him who in
the highest sense is "the Shepherd, the stone of
Israel." The iron fetters were preparing him to wear chains
of gold, and making his feet ready to stand on high places. It
is even so with all the Lord's afflicted ones, they too shall
one day step from their prisons to their thrones.
Verse 19. Until the time that his word came.
God has his times, and his children must wait till his
"until" is fulfilled. Joseph was tried as in a
furnace, until the Lord's assaying work was fully accomplished.
The word of the chief butler was nothing, he had to wait until
God's word came, and meanwhile the word of the Lord tried him.
He believed the promise, but his faith was sorely exercised. A
delayed blessing tests men, and proves their metal, whether
their faith is of that precious kind which can endure the fire.
Of many a choice promise we may say with Daniel "the thing
was true, but the time appointed was long." If the vision
tarry it is good to wait for it with patience. There is a trying
word and a delivering word, and we must bear the one till the
other comes to us. How meekly Joseph endured his afflictions,
and with what fortitude he looked forward to the clearing of his
slandered character we may readily imagine: it will be better
still if under similar trials we are able to imitate him, and
come forth from the furnace as thoroughly purified as he was,
and as well prepared to bear the yet harder ordeal of honour and
power.
Verse 20. The king sent and loosed him. He was
thrust into the roundhouse by an officer, but he was released by
the monarch himself. Even the ruler of the people, and let him
go free. The tide had turned, so that Egypt's haughty potentate
gave him a call from the prison to the palace. He had
interpreted the dreams of captives, himself a captive; he must
now interpret for a ruler and become a ruler himself. When God
means to enlarge his prisoners, kings become his turnkeys.
Verse 21. He made him lord of his house.
Reserving no power, but saying "only in the throne will I
be greater than thou." The servitor of slaves becomes lord
over nobles. How soon the Lord lifteth his chosen from the
dunghill to set them among princes. And ruler of all his
substance. He empowered him to manage the storing of the seven
plenteous harvests, and to dispense the provisions in the coming
days of scarcity. All the treasures of Egypt were under his lock
and key, yea, the granaries of the world were sealed or opened
at his bidding. Thus was he in the best conceivable position for
preserving alive the house of Israel with whom the covenant was
made. As our Lord was himself secured in Egypt from Herod's
enmity, so, ages before, the redeemed race found an equally
available shelter, in the hour of need. God has always a refuge
for his saints, and if the whole earth could not afford them
sanctuary, the Lord himself would be their dwelling place, and
take them up to lie in his own bosom. We are always sure to be
fed if all the world should starve. It is delightful to think of
our greater Joseph ruling the nations for the good of his own
household, and it becomes us to abide in quiet confidence in
every political disaster, since Jesus is on the throne of
providence, King of kings and Lord of lords, and will be so till
this dispensation ends.
Verse 22. To bind his princes at his pleasure.
He who was bound obtains authority to bind. He is no longer kept
in prison, but keeps all the prisons, and casts into them the
greatest nobles when justice demands it. And teach his senators
wisdom. The heads of the various peoples, the elders of the
nations, learned from him the science of government, the art of
providing for the people. Joseph was a great instructor in
political economy, and we doubt not that he mingled with it the
purest morals, the most upright jurisprudence, and something of
that divine wisdom without which the most able senators remain
in darkness. The king's authority made him absolute both in the
executive and in the legislative courts, and the Lord instructed
him to use his power with discretion. What responsibilities and
honours loaded the man who had been rejected by his brothers,
and sold for twenty pieces of silver! What glories crown the
head of that greater one who was "separated from his
brethren."
Verse 23. Israel also came into Egypt. The aged
patriarch came, and with him that increasing company which bore
his name. He was hard to bring there. Perhaps nothing short of
the hope of seeing Joseph could have drawn him to take so long a
journey from the tombs of his forefathers; but the divine will
was accomplished and the church of God was removed into an
enemy's country, where for a while it was nourished. And Jacob
sojourned in the land of Ham. Shem the blessed came to lodge
awhile with Ham the accursed: the dove was in the vulture's
nest. God so willed it for a time, and therefore it was safe and
right: still it was only a sojourn, not a settlement. The
fairest Goshen in Egypt was not the covenant blessing, neither
did the Lord mean his people to think it so; even so to us
"earth is our lodge" but only our lodge, for heaven is
our home. When we are best housed we ought still to remember
that here we have no continuing city. It were ill news for us if
we were doomed to reside in Egypt for ever, for all its riches
are not worthy to be compared with the reproach of Christ. Thus
the song rehearsed the removals of the Lord's people, and was a
most fit accompaniment to the bearing up of the ark, as the
priest carried it into the city of David, where the Lord had
appointed it a resting place.
Verse 24. And he increased his people greatly.
In Goshen they seem to have increased rapidly from the first,
and this excited the fears of the Egypt, inns, so that they
tried to retard their increase by oppression, but the Lord
continued to bless them, And made them stronger than their
enemies. Both in physical strength and in numbers they
threatened to become the more powerful race. Nor was this growth
of the nation impeded by tyrannical measures, but the very
reverse took place, thus giving an early instance of what has
since become a proverb in the church—"the more they
oppressed them the more they multiplied." It is idle to
contend either with God or his people.
Verse 25. He turned their hearts to hate his
people. It was his goodness to Israel which called forth the
ill will of the Egyptian court, and so far the Lord caused it,
and moreover he made use of this feeling to lead on to the
discomfort of his people, and so to their readiness to leave the
land to which they had evidently become greatly attached. Thus
far but no further did the Lord turn the hearts of the
Egyptians. God cannot in any sense be the author of sin so far
as to be morally responsible for its existence, but it often
happens through the evil which is inherent in human nature that
the acts of the Lord arouse the ill feelings of ungodly men. Is
the sun to be blamed because while it softens wax it hardens
clay? Is the orb of day to be accused of creating the foul
exhalations which are drawn by its warmth from the pestilential
marsh? The sun causes the reek of the dunghill only in a certain
sense had it been a bed of flowers his beams would have called
forth fragrance. The evil is in men, and the honour of turning
it to good and useful purposes is with the Lord. Hatred is often
allied with cunning, and so in the case of the Egyptians, they
began to deal subtilly with his servants. They treated them in a
fraudulent manner, they reduced them to bondage by their
exactions, they secretly concerted the destruction of their male
children, and at length openly ordained that cruel measure, and
all with the view of checking their increase, lest in time of
war they should side with invaders in order to obtain their
liberty. Surely the depths of Satanic policy were here reached,
but vain was the cunning of man against the chosen seed.
Verse 26. He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom
he had chosen. When the oppression was at the worst, Moses
came. For the second time we have here the expression, "he
sent"; he who sent Joseph sent also Moses and his eloquent
brother. The Lord had the men in readiness and all he had to do
was to commission them and thrust them forward. They were two,
for mutual comfort and strength, even as the apostles and the
seventy in our Lord's day were sent forth two and two. The men
differed, and so the one became the supplement of the other, and
together they were able to accomplish far more than if they had
been exactly alike: the main point was that they were both sent,
and hence both clothed with divine might.
Verse 27. They showed his signs among them, and
wonders in the land of Ham. The miracles which were wrought
by Moses were the Lord's, not his own: signs, as being the marks
of Jehovah's presence hence they are here called "his"
and power. The plagues were "words of his signs" (see
margin), that is to say, they were speaking marvels, which
testified more plainly than words to the omnipotence of Jehovah,
to his determination to be obeyed, to his anger at the obstinacy
of Pharaoh. Never were discourses more plain, pointed, personal,
or powerful, and yet it took ten of them to accomplish the end
designed. In the preaching of the gospel there are words, and
signs, and wonders and these leave men without excuse for their
impenitence; to have the kingdom of God come nigh unto them, and
yet to remain rebellious is the unhappy sin of obstinate
spirits. Those are wonders of sin who see wonders of grace, and
yet are unaffected by them: bad as he was, Pharaoh had not this
guilt, for the prodigies which lie beheld were marvels of
judgment and not of mercy.
Verse 28. He sent darkness, and made it dark.
It was no natural or common darkness to be accounted for by the
blinding dust of the simoon, it was beyond all precedent and out
of the range of ordinary events. It was a horrible palpable
obscurity which men felt clinging about them as though it were a
robe of death. It was a thick darkness, a total darkness, a
darkness which lasted three days, a darkness in which no one
dared to stir. What a condition to be in! This plague is first
mentioned, thought it is not first in order, because it fitly
describes all the period of the plagues: the land was in the
darkness of sorrow, and in the darkness of sin all the time. If
we shudder as we think of that long and terrible gloom, let us
reflect upon the gross darkness which still covers heathen lands
as the result of sin, for it is one of the chief plagues which
iniquity creates for itself. May the day soon come when the
people which sit in darkness shall see a great light. And they
rebelled not against his word. Moses and Aaron did as they were
bidden, and during the darkness the Egyptians were so cowed that
even when it cleared away they were anxious for Israel to be
gone, and had it not been for the pride of Pharaoh they would
have rejoiced to speed them on their journey there and then. God
can force men to obey, and even make the stoutest hearts eager
to pay respect to his will, for fear his plagues should be
multiplied. Possibly, however, the sentence before us neither
refers to Moses nor the Egyptians, but to the plagues which came
at the Lord's bidding. The darkness, the hail, the frogs, the
murrain, were all so many obedient servants of the great Lord of
all.
Verse 29. He turned their waters into blood, and
slew their fish. So that the plague was not a mere colouring
of the water with red earth, as some suppose, but the river was
offensive and fatal to the fish. The beloved Nile and other
streams were all equally tainted and ensanguined. Their
commonest mercy became their greatest curse. Water is one of the
greatest blessings, and the more plentiful it is the better, but
blood is a hideous sight to look upon, and to see rivers and
pools of it is frightful indeed. Fish in Egypt furnished a large
part of the food supply, and it was no small affliction to see
them floating dead and white upon a stream of crimson. The hand
of the Lord thus smote them where all classes of the people
would become aware of it and suffer from it.
Verse 30. Their land brought forth frogs in
abundance. If fish could not live frogs might, yea, they
multiplied both on land and in the water till they swarmed
beyond all count. In the chambers of their kings. They
penetrated the choicest rooms of the palace, and were found upon
the couches of state. The Lord called for them and they marched
forth. Obnoxious and even loathsome their multitudes became, but
there was no resisting them; they seemed to spring out of the
ground, the very land brought them forth. Their universal
presence must have inspired horror and disgust which would cause
sickness and make life a burden; their swarming even in the
king's own chambers was a rebuke to his face, which his pride
must have felt. Kings are no more than other men with God, nay
less than others when they are first in rebellion; if the frogs
had abounded elsewhere, but had been kept out of his select
apartments, the monarch would have cared little, for he was a
heartless being, but God took care that there should be a
special horde of the invaders for the palace; they were more
than ordinarily abundant in the chambers of their kings.
Verse 31. He spake. See the power of the divine
word. He had only to say it and it was done: and there came
divers sorts of flies. Insects of various annoying kinds came up
in infinite hordes, a mixture of biting, stinging, buzzing
gnats, mosquitos, files, beetles, and other vermin such as make
men's flesh their prey, the place of deposit for their eggs, and
the seat of peculiar torments. And lice in all their coasts.
These unutterably loathsome forms of life were as the dust of
the ground, and covered their persons, their garments, and all
they ate. Nothing is too small to master man when God commands
it to assail him. The sons of Ham had despised the Israelites
and now they were made to loathe themselves. The meanest beggars
were more approachable than the proud Egyptians; they were
reduced to the meanest condition of filthiness, and the most
painful state of irritation. What armies the Lord can send forth
when once his right arm is bared for war! And what scorn he
pours on proud nations when he fights them, not with angels, but
with lice! Pharaoh had little left to be proud of when his own
person was invaded by filthy parasites. It was a slap in the
face which ought to have humbled his heart, but, alas, man, when
he is altogether polluted, still maintains his self conceit, and
when he is the most disgusting object in the universe he still
vaunts himself. Surely pride is moral madness.
Verse 32. He gave them hail for rain. They
seldom had rain, but now the showers assumed the form of heavy,
destructive hail storms, and being accompanied with a hurricane
and thunderstorm, they were overwhelming, terrible, and
destructive. And flaming fire in their land. The lightning was
peculiarly vivid, and seemed to run along upon the ground, or
fall in fiery flakes. Thus all the fruit of the trees and the
harvests of the fields were either broken to pieces or burned on
the spot, and universal fear bowed the hearts of men to the
dust. No phenomena are more appalling to the most of mankind
than those which attend a thunderstorm; even the most audacious
blasphemers quail when the dread artillery of heaven opens fire
upon the earth.
Verse 33. He smote their vines also and their fig
trees. So that all hope of gathering their best fruits was
gone, and the trees were injured for future bearing. All the
crops were destroyed, and these are mentioned as being the more
prominent forms of their produce, used by them both at festivals
and in common meals. And brake the trees of their coasts. From
end to end of Egypt the trees were battered and broken by the
terrible hailstorm. God is in earnest when he deals with proud
spirits, he will either end them or mend them.
Verse 34. He spoke, and the locusts came, and
caterpillars, and that without number. One word from the
Captain and the armies leap forward. The expression is very
striking, and sets forth the immediate result of the divine
word. The caterpillar is called the licker, because it seems to
lick up every green thing as in a moment. Perhaps the
caterpillar here meant is still the locust in another form. That
locusts swarm in countless armies is a fact of ordinary
observation, and the case would be worse on this occasion. We
have ourselves ridden for miles through armies of locusts, and
we have seen with our own eyes how completely they devour every
green thing. The description is not strained when we read,
"And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured
the fruit of their ground." Nothing escapes these ravenous
creatures, they even climb the trees to reach any remnant of
foliage which may survive. Commissioned as these were by God, we
may be sure they would do their work thoroughly, and leave
behind them nothing but a desolate wilderness.
Verse 35. Did eat up all the herbs. The locusts
had devoured every green herb and every blade of grass; and had
it not been for the reeds, on which our cattle entirely
subsisted while we skirted the banks of the river, the journey
must have been discontinued, at least in the line that had been
proposed. The larvae, as generally is the case in this class of
nature, are much more voracious than the perfect insect; nothing
that is green seems to come amiss to them. The traces of their
route over the country are very obvious for many weeks after
they have passed it, the surface appearing as if swept by a
broom, or as if a harrow had been drawn over it. John Barrow,
1764-1849.
Verse 36. Are smote also all the firstborn in their
land, the chief of all their strength. Now came the master
blow. The Lord spoke before, but now he smites; before he only
smote vines, but now he strikes men themselves. The glory of the
household dies in a single night, the prime and pick of the
nation are cut off, the flower of the troops, the heirs of the
rich, and the hopes of the poor all die at midnight. Now the
target was struck in the centre, there was no confronting this
plague. Pharaoh feels it as much as the woman slave at the mill:
he had smitten Israel, the Lord's firstborn, and the Lord repaid
him to his face. What a cry went up throughout the land of Egypt
when every house wailed its firstborn at the dead of night! O
Jehovah, thou didst triumph in that hour, and with an
outstretched arm didst thou deliver thy people.
Verse 37. He brought them forth also with silver
and gold. This they asked of the Egyptians, perhaps even
demanded, and well they might, for they had been robbed and
spoiled for many a day, and it was not meet that they should go
forth empty handed. Glad were the Egyptians to hand over their
jewels to propitiate a people who had such a terrible friend
above; they needed no undue pressure, they feared them too much
to deny them their requests. The Israelites were compelled to
leave their houses and lands behind them, and it was but justice
that they should be able to turn these into portable property.
And there was not one feeble person among their tribes—a great
marvel indeed. The number of their army was very great and yet
there was not one in hospital, not one carried in an ambulance,
or limping in the rear. Poverty and oppression had not enfeebled
them. JEHOVAH ROPHI had healed them; they carried none of the
diseases of Egypt with them, and felt none of the exhaustion
which sore bondage produces. When God calls his people to a long
journey he fits them for it; in the pilgrimage of life our
strength shall be equal to our day. See the contrast between
Egypt and Israel—in Egypt one dead in every house, and among
the Israelites not one so much as limping.
Verse 38. Egypt was glad when they departed,
which would not have been the case had the gold and silver been
borrowed by the Israelites, for men do not carry their goods
into a far country. The awe of God like to see borrowers lad to
nay them to be was on Egypt, and they feared his people and were
glad to pay them to be gone. What a change from the time when
the sons of Jacob were the drudges of the land, the offscouring
of all things, the brick makers whose toil was only requited by
the lash or the stick. Now they were reverenced as prophets and
priests; for the fear of them fell upon them, the people
proceeded even to a superstitious terror them. Thus with cheers
and good wishes their former taskmasters sent them on their way:
Pharaoh was foiled and the chosen people were once more on the
move, journeying to the place which the Lord had given to them
by a covenant of salt. "O give thanks unto Jehovah; call
upon his name, make known his deeds among the people."
Verse 39. He spread a cloud for a covering.
Never people were so favoured. What would not travellers in the
desert now give for such a canopy? The sun could not scorch them
with its burning ray; their whole camp was screened like a king
in his pavilion. Nothing seemed to be too good for God to give
his chosen nation, their comfort was studied in every way. And
fire to give light in the night. While cities were swathed in
darkness, their town of tents enjoyed a light which modern art
with all its appliances cannot equal. God himself was their sun
and shield, their glory and their defence. Could they be
unbelieving while so graciously shaded, or rebellious while they
walked at midnight in such a light? Alas, the tale of their sin
is as extraordinary as this story of His love; but this Psalm
selects the happier theme and dwells only upon covenant love and
faithfulness. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good. We,
too, have found the Lord all this to us, for he has been our sun
and shield, and has preserved us alike from the perils of joys
and the evils of grief;
"He hath been my joy in woe,
Cheered my heart when it was low;
And with warnings softly sad
Calmed my heart when it was glad."
So has the promise been fulfilled to us, "the sun shall
not hurt thee by day, nor the moon by night."
Verse 40. The people asked. But how badly, how
wickedly! And yet his grace forgave the sin of their murmuring
and heard its meaning: or perhaps we may consider that while the
multitude murmured there were a few, who were really gracious
people, who prayed, and therefore the blessing came. He brought
quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He gave
them what they asked amiss as well as what was good for them,
mingling judgment with goodness, for their discipline. The
quails were more a curse than a blessing in the end, because of
their greed and lust, but in themselves they were a peculiar
indulgence, and favour: it was their own fault, that the dainty
meat brought death with it. As for the manna it was unmingled
good to them, and really satisfied them, which the quails never
did. It was bread from heaven, and the bread of heaven, sent by
heaven; it was a pity that they were not led to look up to
heaven whence it came, and fear and love the God who out of
heaven rained it upon them. Thus they were housed beneath the
Lord's canopy and fed with food from his own table; never people
were so lodged and boarded. O house of Israel, praise ye the
Lord.
Verse 41. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed
out. With Moses' rod and his own word he cleft the rock in
the desert, and forth leaped abundant floods for their drinking
where they had feared to die of thirst. From most unlikely
sources the all sufficient God can supply his people's needs;
hard rocks become springing fountains at the Lord's command.
They ran in the dry places like a river: so that those at a
distance from the rock could stoop down and refresh themselves,
and the stream flowed on, so that in future journeyings they
were supplied. The desert sand would naturally swallow up the
streams, and yet it did not so, the refreshing river ran
"in the dry places." We know that the rock set forth
our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom there flows a fountain of
living waters which shall never be exhausted till the last
pilgrim has crossed the Jordan and entered Canaan.
Verse 42. For he remembered his holy promise, and
Abraham his servant. Here is the secret reason for all this
grace. The covenant and he for whose sake it was made are ever
on the heart of the Most High. He remembered his people because
he remembered his covenant. He could not violate that gracious
compact for it was sacred to him,—"his holy
promise." A holy God must keep his promise holy. In our
case the Lord's eye is upon his beloved Son, and his engagements
with him. On our behalf, and this is the source and well ahead
of those innumerable favours which enrich us in all our
wanderings through this life's wilderness.
Verse 43. And he brought forth his people with joy,
and his chosen with gladness. Up from the wilderness he led
them, rejoicing over them himself and making them rejoice too.
They were his people, his chosen, and hence in them he rejoiced,
and upon them he showered his favours, that they might rejoice
in him as their God, and their portion.
Verse 44. And gave them the lands of the heathen.
He drove out the Canaanites and allotted the lands to the
tribes. They were called on to fight, but the Lord wrought so
wonderfully that the conquest was not effected by their bow or
spear—the Lord gave them the land. And they inherited
the labour of the people, they dwelt in houses which they had
not built, and gathered fruit front vines and olives which they
had not planted. They were not settled in a desert which needed
to be reclaimed, but in a land fertile to a proverb, and
cultivated carefully by its inhabitants. Like Adam, they were
placed in a garden. This entrance into the goodly land was fitly
celebrated when the ark was being moved to Zion.
Verse 45. That they might observe his statutes, and
keep his laws. This was the practical design of it all. The
chosen nation was to be the conservator of truth, the exemplar
of morality, the pattern of devotion: everything was so ordered
as to place them in advantageous circumstances for fulfilling
this trust. Theirs was a high calling and a glorious election.
It involved great responsibilities, but it was in itself a
distinguished blessing, and one for which the nation was bound
to give thanks. Most justly then did the music close with the
jubilant but solemn shout of HALLELUJAH. Praise ye the Lord. If
this history did trot make Israel praise God, what would?
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. This is the first of a series of "Confitemini
Domino" Psalms, "O give thanks unto the Lord"
(Ps 105:1 106:1 107:1 108:1 136:1)—Christopher Wordsworth.
Whole Psalm. The 105th Psalm is a meditation on the
covenant as performed on the part of God, the 106th on the
covenant as kept by Israel. They both dwell on the
predestinating will of God, electing men to holiness and
obedience, and the mode in which human sin opposes itself to
that will, and yet cannot make it void. Plain Commentary.
Verse 1. The first fifteen verses were written at the
bringing up of the Ark, 1 Chron. 6. They tell that it is
sovereign grace that ruleth over all—it is a sovereign God.
Out of a fallen world he takes whom he pleases—individuals,
families, nations. He chose Israel long ago, that they might be
the objects of grace, and their land the theatre of its display.
He will yet again return to Israel, when the days of his Kingdom
of Glory draw near; and Israel shall have a full share—the
very fullest and richest—in his blessings, temporal and
spiritual. Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 1. Call upon his name. The original
meaning of this phrase is call (him) by his name, i.e.,
give him the descriptive title most expressive of his divine
perfections; or more specifically, call him by his name Jehovah,
i.e., ascribe to him the attributes which it denotes, to wit,
eternity and self existence, together with that covenant
relation to his people, which though not denoted by the name was
constantly associated with it, and therefore necessarily
suggested by it. The meaning of the next phrase is obscured, if
not entirely concealed in the common version, "among the
people." The plural form and sense of the original
expression are essential to the writer's purpose, which is to
glorify the God of Israel among the nations. Joseph Addison
Alexander.
Verse 1. Make known his deeds among the people.
The people of God were not shut up in that narrow corner of the
earth for the purpose of confining within their straitened
territories the true knowledge and worship of God; but God
wished that to be the fixed seat of the church, from which the
sound of heavenly doctrine should go forth into all nations.
Therefore he chose Canaan, which is interjected among the most
powerful nations of the world, that from it as from a fountain
might more easily issue the doctrine of God to the rest, of the
nations: as Isaiah says, "Out of Zion shall go forth the
law."—Mollerus.
Verse 2. Talk ye of all his wondrous works,
yytalpn niphleothaiv, "of his miracles." Who
have so many of these to boast of as Christians! Christianity is
a tissue of miracles; and every part of the work of grace on the
soul is a miracle. Genuine Christian converts may talk of
miracles from morning to night; and they should talk of them,
and recommend to others their miracle working God and Saviour. Adam
Clarke.
Verse 2. Sing...talk, etc. Music and
conversation are two things by which the mind of man receiveth
much good, or a great deal of harm. They who make
"Jehovah" and his "wondrous works" the
subject of both, enjoy a heaven upon earth. And they who do in
reality love the Saviour, will always find themselves inclined
to "sing to him, "and to "talk of him."—George
Horne.
Verse 2. Sing psalms. It is not sufficient to
offer the empty vessel of our joy unto God, or our singing voice
in musical tune only; but also it is required that we fill our
joyful voice with holy matter and good purpose, whereby God only
may be reasonably praised: "Sing psalms unto
him."—David Dickson.
Verse 2. Sing psalms. Psalmody is the calm of
the soul, the repose of the spirit, the arbiter of peace. It
silences the wave, and conciliates the whirlwind of our
passions, soothing the impetuous, tempering the unchaste. It is
an engenderer of friendship, a healer of dissension, a
reconciler of enemies. For who can longer count him his enemy,
with whom to the throne of God he hath raised the strain?
Psalmody repels the demons, and lures the ministry of angels. It
is a weapon of defence in nightly terrors and a respite from
daily toil. To the infant it is a presiding genius; to manhood a
crown of glory; a balm of comfort to the aged; a congenial
ornament to women. Basil.
Verse 4. Seek the Lord, and be strengthened; so
divers ancient versions read it. They that would be
"strengthened in the inward man, " must fetch in
strength from God by faith and prayer. "Seek his
strength, "and then seek his face; for by his strength
we hope to prevail with him for his favour, as Jacob did, Ho
7:3. "Seek his face evermore, "i.e., seek to
have his favour to eternity, and therefore continue seeking it
to the end of the time of your probation. Seek it while you live
in this world, and you shall have it while you live in the other
world, and even there shall be for ever seeking it, in an
infinite progression, and yet be for ever satisfied in it. Matthew
Henry.
Verse 4. His strength. In classical language,
his aegis, or protection, his ark, the symbol of the divine
presence. John Mason Good.
Verse 4. Seek his face evermore. It is added
"evermore, "lest they should imagine that they had
performed their duty, if they assembled twice or three times in
the year at the tabernacle, and observed the external rites
according to the law. Mollerus.
Verse 4. Seek...seek. None do seek the Lord so
earnestly, but they have need of stirring up to seek him more
earnestly; neither have any attained to such a measure of
communion with God, but they have need to seek for a further
measure: therefore it is said, "Seek the Lord, seek his
strength, seek his face evermore."—David Dickson.
Verse 5. Remember. How others may be affected I
do not ask. For myself, I confess, that there is no care or
sorrow, by which I am so severely harassed, as when I feel
myself guilty of ingratitude to my most kind Lord. It not seldom
appears to be a fault so inexplicable, that I am alarmed when I
read these words, inasmuch as I consider them addressed to
myself, and others like me. Remember, O ye forgetful,
thoughtless, and ungrateful, the works of God, which he hath
done to us, with so many signs and proofs of his goodness. What
more could he have done, which he hath not done?—Folengius.
Verse 6. O ye seed of Abraham his servant.
Consider the relation ye stand in to him. Ye are "the seed
of Abraham his servant"; you are born in his house, and
being thereby entitled to the privilege of his servants,
protection and provision, you are also bound to do the duty of
servants, to attend your master, consult his honour, obey his
commands, and do what you can to advance his interests. Matthew
Henry.
Verse 8. He hath remembered his covenant. As a
long series of years had elapsed between the promise and the
performance, the prophet uses the word "remember,
"intimating that the Divine promise does not become
obsolete by length of time, but that even when the world
imagines that they are extinguished and wholly forgotten, God
retains as distinct a remembrance of them as ever, that he may
accomplish them in due season. John Calvin.
Verse 8. The word which he commanded. All that
God says must of necessity be said with authority, so that even
his promises partake of the nature of commands. Joseph
Addison Alexander.
Verse 11. The lot of your inheritance:
literally lbh, the cord of your inheritance, an
expression taken from the ancient method of measuring land by
the cord or line; whence the measuring cord is metonymically put
for the part measured, and divided by the cord. Thus, "the
lines, Mylbx, the cords, are fallen unto me in pleasant
places, "i.e., as the psalmist explains it: "I
have a goodly heritage." Ps 16:6—Samuel Chandler.
Verse 11. Your inheritance. The change of the
number (from "thee" to "your") points out
that God made a covenant with all the people in general, though
lie spake the words only to a few individuals; even as we have
seen a little before, that it was a decree or an everlasting
law. The holy patriarchs were the first and principal persons
into whose hands the promise was committed; but they did not
embrace the grace which was offered to them as belonging only to
themselves, but as a blessing which their posterity in common
with them were to become sharers of. John Calvin.
Verse 12. One would think that all the world would
have been upon them; but here was the protection, God has a
negative voice, "He suffered no man to do them
wrong." Many had (as we say) an aching tooth at the
people of God, their finger itched to be dealing with them, and
the text shows four advantages the world had against them.
First, "They were few." Secondly, "very
few." Thirdly, "strangers." Fourthly,
unsettled. What hindered their enemies? It was the Lord's
negative voice. "He reproved kings for their sakes;
saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no
harm." We see an instance of this (Ge 35:5). When Jacob
and his family journeyed, "the terror of God was upon the
cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after
the sons of Jacob." They had a mind to pursue after them,
to revenge the slaughter of the Shechemites; but God said, Pursue
not, and then they could not pursue, they must stay at home.
And when his people the Jews were safe in Canaan he encourages
them to come up freely to worship at Jerusalem, by this
assurance, "No man shall desire the land, when thou shalt
go up to appear before the Lord thy God, thrice in the
year" (Ex 34:24). God can stop not only hands from
spoiling, but hearts from desiring. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 13. From one kingdom to another people.
Where we might have expected from kingdom to kingdom, the car is
somewhat disappointed by the phrase, "from one kingdom
to another people, " which may have been intended to
distinguish the Egyptian and other monarchies from the more
democratical or patriarchal institutions of the Arabians and
other nations. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 13. Though frequent flitting is neither
desirable nor commendable, yet sometimes there is a just and
necessary occasion for it, and it may be the lot of some of the
best of men. Matthew Henry.
Verse 14. He suffered no man to do them, wrong.
As many rose up, one after another, in troops against them, the
Psalmist says indefinitely, that men were withheld from hurting
them; for mda, Adam, is the word here used, which is the one
most generally employed to signify man. John Calvin.
Verse 14. I resolve the words into these three parts.
1. Here is the nearness and the dearness of the saints unto
God. They are dearer to him than kings and states, simply
considered; that is, otherwise than as they in their persons are
also saints; for you see that for their sakes he reproved kings,
and so sheweth that he prefers them to kings.
2. Here is the great danger to kings and states, to deal with
his saints otherwise than well. Which appeareth many ways; for
he doth not only in words give a charge not to touch them, but
he carries it in a high way (for so God will do when he pleads
their cause). Touch them not; as if he had said, Let me see if
you dare so much as touch them; and it is with an intimation of
the highest threatening if they should; upon your peril if you
do so; for that is the scope of such a speech. And accordingly
in deeds he made this good; for the text saith he suffered no
man to do them wrong; not that he did altogether prevent all
wrong and injuries, for they received many as they went through
those lands; but at no time did lie let it go unpunished. In
that sense he suffered them not. You know how he plagued
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, with great plagues, and all his
household, for Abraham's wife's sake, Gen. 7. And so Abimelech,
king of Gerar, the Lord cometh upon him with a greatness, and
his first word is in Ge 2:3, "Behold, thou art but a dead
man, "afore he had first told him why or wherefore, though
then he adds the reason; he brings him upon his knees, verse 4,
bids him look to it, that he give satisfaction to Abraham, and
restore his wife to him again, verse 7; and well he escaped so;
and tells him also that he must be beholden to Abraham's prayers
for his life. "He is a prophet, "saith he, "and
he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live."
3. The third is the care and protection which God had over
them, set and amplified, 1, by the number and condition of the
persons whom he defended; though "few men in number,
"that is, soon reckoned, for their power and strength a
few, or very small, eivs mikron, so the Septuagint in the
parallel place, 1Ch 16:19; as also, 2, by what he did for them:
He suffered no man, how great soever, to do them any wrong, how
small soever; not without recompense and satisfaction; not to do
it, though they had a mind to it. Though the people had an ill
eye at them, Ge 26:11, God causeth Abimelech to make a law on
purpose; Abimelech charged all his people in Isaac's behalf, and
spake in the very words of the text, "He that toucheth this
man or his wife shall be put to death."—Thomas
Goodwin.
Verse 15. Mine anointed. Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob had no external anointing. They were, however, called "anointed,
"because they were separated by God from the multitude
of wicked men, and endowed with the Spirit and his gifts, of
which the oil was an emblem. Mollerus.
Verse 15. Touch not mine anointed, and do my
prophets no harm. We see here a vivid description of the
people of God. They are "his anointed ones,
""having the residue of his Spirit"; they are his
prophets, to whom is intrusted the word of life, that they may
be witnesses in the world. To these he gives as it were a safe
passport through the world. Though they have ever been but men
of number, accounted as a vile thing, they are precious in his
sight. They are not distinguished by external dignity, numbers
and power, as Rome sets forth the marks of her communion. They
are in the midst of kingdoms, but not of them. They form usually
the humblest portions of most communities, and yet they receive
honour from God. Despised by the world, but unto God kings and
priests, ordained and anointed to reign with Christ for ever. W.
Wilson.
Verse 15. Prophets. The aybk is the prophet, or
forth speaker; the term laying stress on the utterance, and not
upon the vision. The Hebrew word comes from a root which means
to bubble up and overflow as from a full fountain. But the
fulness of the true prophets of Jehovah was not that of their
own thoughts and emotions. It was of the Divine Spirit within
them. "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost, "2Pe 1:21. The first application of the word is to
Abraham (Ge 2:7); although, long before Abraham, "Enoch the
seventh from Adam, prophesied, "Jude 14. Donald Fraser,
in "Synoptical Lectures on the Books of Holy
Scripture." 1873.
Verse 16. He called for a famine. As a master calls
for a servant ready to do his bidding. On the contrary, God
says (Eze 36:29), "I will call for the corn, and will
increase it, and lay no famine upon you." Compare the
centurion's words as to sickness being Christ's servant, ready
to come or go at his call, Mt 8:8,9. A.R. Fausset.
Verse 17. Joseph may be a fit type to us of our
spiritual deliverance. Consider him sold into Egypt, not without
the determinate counsel of God, who preordained this to good;
"God did send me before you to preserve life, "Ge
45:5. Here is the difference, the brethren sold Joseph, we sold
ourselves. Consider us thus sold unto sin and death; God had a
purpose to redeem us; there is election. Joseph was delivered
out of prison, and we ransomed out of the house of bondage;
there was redemption. Joseph's cause was made known, and himself
acquitted; we could not be found innocent ourselves, but were
acquitted in Christ; wherein consists our justification. Lastly,
Joseph was clothed in glorious apparel, and adorned with golden
chains, and made to ride in the second chariot of Egypt: so our
last step is to be advanced to high honour, even the glory of
the celestial court; "This honour have all the saints,
" Ps 149:9. Thomas Adams.
Verse 17. In many circumstances concerning Joseph—in
his being beloved of his father—in his being hated of his
brethren—in his sufferings and deep abasement—in his being
brought out of prison—in his advancement and exaltation—in
his wisdom and prudence—in his providing for his father's
family—in his free forgiveness of the injuries he had
sustained from his brethren—it maybe truly said, we have
Christ delineated therein, and set forth thereby, in type,
figure, and representatively. But I have nothing to do with this
here; I only give this hint to the reader. Samuel Eyles
Pierce, 1817.
Verse 18. His soul came into iron (margin). The
whole person is denoted by the soul, because the soul of the
captive suffers still more than the body. Imprisonment is one of
the most severe trials to the soul. Even to spiritual heroes,
such as a Savonarola and St. Cyran, the waters often go over the
soul. E.W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 18. His soul came into iron. Till we have
felt it, we cannot conceive that sickness of heart, which at
times will steal upon the patient sufferer; that sense of
loneliness, that faintness of soul, which comes from hopes
deferred and wishes unshared, from the selfishness of brethren
and the heartlessness of the world. We ask ourselves, If the
Lord were with me, should I suffer thus, not only the scorn of
the learned and the contempt of the great, but even the
indifference and neglect of those whom I have served, who yet
forget me? So Joseph might have asked; and so till now may the
elect ask, as they stand alone without man's encouragement or
sympathy, not turned aside by falsehood or scorn, with their
face set as a flint, yet deeply feeling what it costs them. Andrew
dukes, in" The Types of Genesis, "1858.
Verse 19. Until the time that his word came: the
word of the LORD tried him. This verse forms the key to the
whole meaning of Joseph's mysterious trial, and at the same time
illustrates a deep mystery in the spiritual life of man. By
"the word of the Lord" that "tried him, "the
psalmist evidently refers to the dreams of his future destiny
which were sent to Joseph from God; and in saying that they
tried him "until his word came, "he evidently means
that his faith in those promises was tested by his long
imprisonment, until the day of his deliverance dawned. Consider
for a moment his position, and you will see the purpose of that
trial. A youth educated amidst all the quiet simplicity of the
early patriarchal life, he was haunted by dream visions of a
mighty destiny. Those visions were mysteriously foretelling his
government in Egypt, and the blessings which his wise and just
rule would confer on the land; but while unable to comprehend
them, he yet believed that they were voices of the future, and
promises of God. But the quietude of that shepherd life was not
the preparation for the fulfilment of his promised destiny. The
education that would form the man who could withstand, firmly,
the temptations of Egyptian life with its cities and
civilization; the education that would form the ruler whose
clear eye should judge between the good and the evil, and
discern the course of safety in the hour of a nation's
peril—all this was not to be gained under the shadow of his
father's tent; it must come through trial, and through trial
arising from the very promise of God in which he believed.
Hence, a great and startling change crossed his life, that
seemed to forbid the fulfilment of that dream promise, and
tempted him to doubt its truth. Sold into Egypt as a slave, cast
into prison through his fidelity to God, the word of the Lord
most powerfully tried his soul. In the gloom of that
imprisonment it was most hard to believe in God's faithfulness,
when his affliction had risen from his obedience; and most hard
to keep the promise clearly before him, when his mighty trouble
would perpetually tempt him to regard it as an idle dream. But
through the temptation, he gained the strong trust which the
pomp and glory of the Egyptian court would have no power to
destroy; and when the word of deliverance came, the man came
forth, strong through trial, to fulfil his glorious destiny of
ruling Egypt in the name of God, and securing for it the
blessings of heaven. Thus his trial by the word of the
Lord—his temptation to doubt its truth—was a divine
discipline preparing him for the fulfilment of the promise. And
looking at it in this aspect, this verse presents to us a deep
spiritual truth: The promises of God try man, that through the
trial he may be prepared for their fulfilment. Our subject then
is this: The trial of man by the promises of God. This verse
suggests three great facts which exhibit the three aspects of
that trial.
1. God's promises must try man. Every promise of the Lord is
of necessity a trial. Now, this necessity arises from two
sources; from man's secret unbelief, and from God's purposes of
discipline.
(a) God's word must try man by revealing his secret unbelief.
We never know our want of faith till some glorious promise
rouses the soul into the attitude of belief; then the coldness
and unfaithfulness of the heart are lighted up by that flash of
belief, and the promise is a trial. Thus Paul with his profound
insight into the facts of spiritual experience, says, "The
word of the Lord is sharper than a two edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart." In illustration of this we may
observe that many promises of the Lord come to us, as they came
to Joseph, like dream visions of the future. Visions come to the
Christian soul, as grand and wonderful as those which came to
the Hebrew youth of old; and they, too, are prophecies of what
we are destined to be. There comes a time when the voice of God
is more clearly heard, and the great inheritance revealed. No
dream of the night—no spirit of the dead—has visited us; but
like a spirit some truth of God has entered the soul's presence
chamber and summoned it to noble aspiration and Christ like
endeavour. Then the earnest of the future gleams on life's
horizon. The Sabbath of eternity, with all its balm and music,
seems near, and rapt with its glory, we are roused to all
surrendering zeal. But I appeal to your experience whether it is
not true that such revelations of the promise rapidly become
limes of trial. Then the mocking voice of unbelief tells us that
aspiration is vain. The cold cross currents of indifference
chill the fiery impulses of the heart. We are in prison like
Joseph, by no material bars indeed, but by the invisible bonds
of unbelief; and we find it most hard to keep the promise clear
and bright, while tempted to believe that our aspirations were
merely idle dreams. And there is that arousing, by the promise,
of the soul's hidden unbelief, which makes every promise an
inevitable trial.
(b) Again: God causes his promises to try nature that he
may accomplish his own purposes of discipline. It is a law
of our nature that no belief in any unseen thing can ever pass
into the active form of strong endeavour to attain it, until we
are tempted to disbelieve it. Thus the great idea of an
undiscovered land across the wastes of the Atlantic smote the
soul of Columbus; but it remained a dreamy faith until by
opposition and ridicule he was tempted to regard it as a dream,
and then it became heroic endeavour, and the land was found.
Thus with all men of genius. They stand in the front of their
age, with thoughts which the world cannot understand; but those
thoughts are dreams until suffering and scorn try the men, and
then they are awakened into effort to realise them. Hence God
leads us into circumstances in which we are tempted to doubt his
promises, that by temptation he may discipline faith into power.
There is a wilderness of temptation in every life, and like
Christ, we are often led into it, from the solemn hour when we
heard the voice, "Thou art my son; " but like Christ,
we come forth strong, through the long, silent wrestling with
temptation, to do our Father's will.
2. God sends the Hour of Deliverance: "until the time
that his word came." When the discipline was perfected,
Joseph came forth ready for his mission. But our deliverance
does not always come in this way. Take from the Bible histories
the four great methods by which God sends deliverance. Sometimes
by death. Thus with Elijah Weariness, loneliness, failure,
had wrung from by death the strong man the cry, "Take away
my life for I and not better than my fathers." The
temptation was becoming too strong, and God sent deliverance in
the chariot of fire. Sometimes by transforming the
height of trial into the height of blessing. The three
youths in Babylon had clenched their nerves for the climax of
agony, when the fire became a Paradise. So, now, God makes the
climax of trial the herald of spiritual blessedness. By
suffering we are loosened from the bonds of time and sense;
there is one near to us like the Son of God; and deliverance has
come. Sometimes by the glance of love on the falling soul.
Thus with Peter. The temptation was mastering him; one glance of
that eye, and he went out weeping and delivered. Sometimes by
continuing the trial, but increasing the power to endure it.
Thus with Paul. After the vision of the third heaven came
"the thorn in the flesh, "The temptation made him cry
thrice to, God; the trial remained, but here was the
deliverance" my grace is sufficient for thee." The
suffering lost none of its pressure, but he learned to glory in
infirmity; and then came his delivering hour.
3. God makes the Trial by Promise fulfil the Promise itself.
In Joseph the temptation to doubt the word of God silently
meetened him for its fulfilment. So with us all. We hope not for
an Egyptian kingdom, our dream vision is of a heavenly
inheritance, and the palace of a heavenly King. But every
temptation resisted, every mocking voice of doubt overcome, is
an aid upwards and onwards. Trials, sufferings, struggles, are
angels arraying the souls in the white robes of the heavenly
world, and crowning it with the crown that fadeth not away. And
when the end comes, then it will be seen that the long dreary
endeavour to hold fast the dream promise—the firm resolute
"no" to the temptation to disbelieve, are all more
than recompensed with "the exceeding and eternal weight of
glory."—Edward Zuscombe, in "Sermons
preached at Kings Lynn." 1867.
Verse 19. The word of the Lord tried him. As we
try God's word, so God's word tries us; and happy if, when we
are tried, we come forth as gold; and the trial of our faith
proves more precious than that of gold which perisheth, though
it be tried with fire. William Jay.
Verse 19. Tried him. I doubt not that Joseph's
brethren were humbled, yet Joseph may be more, he must be cast
into the ditch, and into the prison, and the iron must enter not
only into his legs, but into his soul. He must be more affected
in spirit, because he was to do greater work for God, and was to
be raised up higher than the rest, and therefore did need the
more ballast. Thomas Shepard, in "The Sound
Believer," 1649.
Verse 19. Tried. Kdu, "assayed; "Ps
7:6 17:3 18:30. He came out of the ordeal, as gold from the
fining pot, more pure and lustrous. William Kay.
Verse 19. Tried him. "Made him lord of his
house." Joseph's feet were hurt in irons, to fit him to
tread more delicately in the King's Palace at Zoan; and when the
Lord's time was come, by the same stairs which winded him into
the dungeon he climbs up into the next chariot to Pharaoh's. Few
can bear great and sudden mercies without pride and wantonness,
till they are hampered and humbled to carry it moderately. Samuel
Lee, in "The Triumph of Mercy in the Chariot of
Praise," 1677.
Verse 20. The king sent and loosed him. And
that by his own master, Potiphar, who had clapt him up there by
his wanton wife's wicked instigation. He had been bound
ignominiously, but now comes he to be loosed honourably. Christopher
Ness.
Verse 21. Ruler of all his substance, or
"possession." Herein also he was a type of Jesus
Christ, who, as God, is possessor of heaven and earth, being the
creator of them. John Gill.
Verse 21. He was received into the Royal Society of
the right honourable the king's privy councillors, and was
constituted as Chairman of the council table, which, though
Moses doth not express, yet David intimates in Ps 105:21,22. All
the privy councillors, as well as the private people were bound
(possibly by oath) to obey him in all things, and, as out of the
chair, he magisterially taught these senators wisdom. Thus the
Hebrew reading runs: He bound the princes to his soul (or
according to his will) and made wise his elders; teaching them
not only civil and moral, but also divine wisdom, for which
cause God sent Joseph (saith he) into Egypt, that some sound of
the redemption of fallen mankind might be heard in that kingdom,
at that time the most flourishing in the world: neither is Moses
altogether silent herein, for he calls him a master of wisdom,
or father to Pharaoh (Ge 45:8). Much more to his councillors,
and he says that no hand or foot shall move (to wit, in affairs
of state, at home, or, in foreign embassies, abroad) without
Joseph's order; he was the king's plenipotentiary, Ge 41:44. Christopher
Ness.
Verse 22. To bind his Princes. The meaning of
wydv doal signifies to exercise control over the greatest men in
the kingdom, which power was conferred on Joseph by Pharaoh: see
Ge 41:40,43,44. The capability of binding is to be regarded as
an evidence of authority; a power of compelling obedience; or,
in default thereof, of inflicting punishment. George
Phillips. 1846.
Verse 22. At his pleasure. Literally, with his
soul which some explain as a bold metaphor, describing Joseph's
mind or soul as the cord or chain with which he bound the
Egyptians, i.e., forced them to perform his will. But see Ps
17:9 27:12 41:2. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 22. And teach his senators wisdom. That
in that wisdom wherein he had been instructed of God he might
also instruct the princes, and teach prudence to those who were
much his seniors. Herein some sparks of divine wisdom shine,
that he should order even the princes and old men to learn
wisdom from one who was a slave and a foreigner, although the
Egyptians are always want to boast that Egypt is the native
place of wisdom. Yansenius.
Verse 23. Egypt...the land of Ham. The
Egyptians were a branch of the race of Ham. They came from Asia
through the desert of Syria to settle in the valley of the Nile.
This is a fact clearly established by science, and entirely
confirms the statements of the book of Genesis. F. Lenormant
and E. Chevalier, in "A Manual of Ancient
History," 1869.
Verse 24. He increased his people greatly.
Behold here the concealed blessing in the secret of the cross.
Under it the people of God are in the most fruitful state. Berleb.
Bible.
Verse 24. Church prosperity desirable. Increase of
numbers, increase of rigour. Attainable under great persecution
and opposition. Divine in its origin,—"he
increased." Satisfactory as a text it is only true of
"his people."
Verse 25. He turned their heart to hate his people.
Not by putting this wicked hatred into them, which is not
consistent either with the holiness of God's nature, or with the
truth of his word, and which was altogether unnecessary, because
they had that and all other wickedness in them by nature; but
partly by withdrawing the common gifts and operations of his
Spirit, and all the restraints and hindrances to it, and wholly
leaving them to their own mistakes, and passions, and corrupt
affections, which of their own accord were ready to take that
course; and partly, by directing and governing that hatred,
which was wholly in and from themselves, so as it should fall
upon the Israelites rather than upon other people. Matthew
Pool.
Verse 25. When by the malice of enemies God's people
are brought to greatest straits there is deliverance near to be
sent from God unto them. "They dealt subtilly with, his
servants. He sent Moses his servant."—David
Dickson.
Verse 26. Moses and Aaron. God usually sendeth
his servants by two and two for mutual helps and comfort. John
Trapp.
Verse 28. He sent darkness. The darkness here
stands at the beginning, (not in the historical order that the
particular plague of darkness stood), to mark how God's wrath
hung over Egypt as a dark cloud during all the plagues. A.R.
Fausset.
Verse 28. Darkness. There is an awful
significance in this plague of darkness. The sun was a leading
object of devotion among the Egyptians under the name of Osiris.
The very name Pharaoh means not only the king but also the sun,
and characterises the king himself as the representative of the
sun and entitled in some sort to divine honours. But now the
very light of the sun has disappeared and primeval chaos seems
to have returned. Thus all the forms of Egyptian will worship
were covered with shame and confusion by the plagues. James
G. Murphy, in "A Commentary on Exodus,"
1866.
Verse 28. Made it dark. God is often described
as manifesting his displeasure in a cloud. Joel speaks of the
day of God's vengeance as "a day of darkness and of
gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness" (Joe
2:2); and Zephaniah employs nearly the same language (Ps 1:15).
The pillar that went before the Israelites, and gave them light,
was to the Egyptians "a cloud and darkness" (Ex
14:20). The darkness which was upon the face of the earth
"in the beginning, "is described by Jehovah in the
book of Job as a cloud: "When I made the cloud the garment
thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it" (Job
38:9). So now the land of Egypt may have been wrapped about by a
thick palpable cloud, cold, damp, impenetrable: the people would
feel it upon their limbs, as swaddling bands; the sun would be
blotted out by it, and all things reduced almost to a state of
death—of which this ninth plague was in a certain sense the
shadow cast before. Such a cloud would be even more terrible in
Egypt, sunny Egypt, than in other countries; for there the sky
is almost always clear, and heavy rains unknown. But in any
place, and under any conditions, it must have been full of
horror and misery. Nothing could represent this more forcibly
than the short sentence, "Neither rose any from his place
for three days." It was an horror of great darkness; it
rested on them like a pall; they knew not what dangers might be
around them, what judgment was next to happen: they had not been
forewarned of this plague, and they could not tell but it might
be only a prelude to some more awful visitation: their soul
melted in them, for fear of those things that might come upon
them: they dared not move from chamber to chamber, nor even from
seat to seat: wherever they chanced to be at the moment when the
darkness fell upon them, there they must remain. Pharaoh might
call in vain for his guards; they could not come to him. Moses
and Aaron were no longer within reach, for none could go to seek
them. Masters could not command their slaves, nor slaves hasten
to obey their master's call; the wife could not flee to her
husband nor the child cling to its parents: the same fear was
upon all, both high and low; the same paralysing terror and
dismay possessed them every one. As says the patriarch Job, they
"laid hold on horror" (Job 18:20). And this continued
for three days and nights: they had no lamps nor torches; either
they could not kindle them, or they dared not move to procure
them: they were silent in darkness, like men already dead. Hope
and expectation of returning light might at first support them;
but hope delayed through seventy-two weary hours would presently
die out, and leave them to despair. The darkness would become
more oppressive and intolerable the longer it continued;
"felt" upon their bodies as a physical infliction, and
"felt" even more in their souls in agonies of fear and
apprehension; such a darkness as that which, in the book of
Revelation, the fifth angel pours out upon the seat of the
beast—"Whose kingdom was full of darkness; and they
gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven
because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of
their deeds" (Re 16:10,11). If there be any truth in the
traditions of the Jews on this subject, there were yet greater
alarms under this canopy of darkness, this palpable obscurity,
than any which would arise out of the physical infliction.
Darkness is a type of Satan's kingdom; and Satan had some
liberty in Egypt to walk up and down upon the land, and to go to
and fro in it. The Jewish Rabbis tell us that the devil and his
angels were let loose during these three dreadful days; that
they had a wider range and greater liberty than usual for
working mischief. They describe these evil spirits going among
the wretched people, glued to their scats as they were, with
terror; frightening them with fearful apparitions; piercing
their ears with hideous shrieks and groans; driving them almost
to madness with the intensity of their fears; making their flesh
creep, and the hair of their head to stand on end. Such a climax
seems to be referred to by the Psalmist, "He cast upon them
the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and
trouble, by sending evil angels among them" (Ps 78:40). Thomas
S. Millington, in "Signs and Wonders in the Land of
Ham," 1873.
Verse 28. And they rebelled not against his word.
The plague of darkness and the rest of the plagues which God
commanded; these as they were his servants, were not disobedient
to him, they came at his word. Ps 105:31,34. John Gill.
Verse 28. They rebelled not against his word;
as Jonah did, who, when he was sent to denounce God's judgments
against Nineveh, went to Tarshish. Moses and Aaron were not
moved, either with a foolish fear of Pharaoh's wrath, or a
foolish pity of Egypt's misery, to relax or retard any of the
plagues which God ordered them to inflict on the Egyptians; but
stretched forth their hand to inflict them as God appointed.
They that are instructed to execute judgment, will find their
remissness construed a rebellion against God's word. Matthew
Henry.
Verse 29. He turned their waters into blood,
etc. The Nile begins to rise about the end of June, and attains
its highest point at the end of September. About the
commencement of the rise it assumes a greenish hue, is
disagreeable to the taste, unwholesome, and often totally unfit
for drinking. It soon, however, becomes red and turbid, and
continues in this state for three or more weeks. In this
condition it is again healthy and fit for use. The miracle now
performed was totally different from this annual change. For,
1. It occurred after the winter, not the summer, solstice;
2. The water was turned into blood, and not merely reddened
by an admixture of red clay or animalcule;
3. The fish died, a result which did not follow from the
periodical change of colour;
4. The river stank, and became offensive, which it ceased to
be when the ordinary redness made its appearance;
5. The stroke was arrested at the end of seven days, whereas
the natural redness continued for at least three weeks; and
6. The change was brought on instantly at the word of command
before the eyes of Pharaoh. The calamity was appalling. The
sweet waters of the Nile were the common beverage of Egypt. It
abounded in all kinds of fish, which formed a principal article
of diet for the inhabitants. It was revered as a god by Egypt.
But now it was a putrid flood, from which they turned away with
loathing. James G. Murphy.
Verse 29. He turned their waters into blood. By
the miraculous change of the waters into blood, a practical
rebuke was given to their superstitious. This sacred and
beautiful river, the benefactor and preserver of the country,
this birthplace of their chief gods, this abode of their lesser
deities, this source of all their prosperity, this centre of all
their devotion, is turned to blood: the waters stink; the canals
and pools, the vessels of wood and vessels of stone, which were
replenished from the river, all are alike polluted. The Nile,
according to Pliny, was the "only source from whence the
Egyptians obtained water for drinking" (Hist. Nat. 76, c.
33). This water was considered particularly sweet and
refreshing; so much so that the people were in the habit of
provoking thirst in order that they might partake more freely of
its soft and pleasant draughts. Now it was become abominable to
them, and they loathed to drink of it. Thomas S. Millington.
Verse 29. And slew their fish. Besides the fish
cured, or sent to market for the table, a very great quantity
was set apart expressly for feeding the sacred animals and
birds,—as the cats, crocodiles, ibises, and others; and some
of the large reservoirs, attached to the temples, were used as
well for keeping fish as for the necessary ablutions of the
devout and for various purposes connected with religion. The
quantity of fish in Egypt was a very great boon to the poor
classes, and when the Nile overflowed the country inhabitants of
the inland villages benefited by this annual gift of the river,
as the land did by the fertilizing mud deposited upon it. The
canals, ponds, and pools, on the low lands, continued to abound
in fish, even after the inundation had ceased; and it was then
that their return to the Nile was intercepted by closing the
mouths of the canals. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in "A
Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians," 1854.
Verse 30. Their land brought forth frogs in
abundance. This is the natural appearance next in the order
of occurrence to the Red Nile, and of it also the God of nature
availed himself to vindicate his power before Pharaoh, and
before Egypt. The Nile, its branches, and the great canals of
irrigation are all bank full, and the exuberant moisture has
aroused from their summer torpor, into life and activity, the
frogs of the Nile, in numbers inconceivable to those who have
not been in hot countries. Even in ordinary years the annoyance
of these loathsome creatures night and day, gives some idea of
what this plague must have been, and renders abundantly
reasonable the creation of a goddess, Ranipula, {1} at the very
commencement of the mythology of ancient Egypt. In the whole of
this fearful succession of judgments there is not one more
personally revolting than the plague of frogs. William
Osborne.
{1} "Driver away of frogs." Her name was Heki;
Birch ap. Bunsen. She was the Buto of the Greek authors.
Verse 30. Their land brought forth frogs in
abundance. It is not difficult for an Englishman, in an
Eastern wet monsoon, to form a tolerable idea of that plague of
Egypt, in which the frogs were in the "houses, bed
chambers, beds and kneading troughs, "of the Egyptians. In
the rainy season, myriads of them send forth their constant
croak in every direction; and a man not possessed of over much
patience, becomes as petulant as was the licentious god, and is
ready to exclaim,
"Croak, croak! Indeed I shall choke,
If you pester and bore my ears any more
With your croak, croak, croak!"
A newcomer, on seeing them leap about the rooms, becomes
disgusted, and forthwith begins an attack upon them; but the
next evening will bring a return of his active visitors. It may
appear almost incredible, but in one evening we killed upwards
of forty of these guests in the Jaffna Mission house. They had
principally concealed themselves m a small tunnel connected with
the bathing room, where their noise had become almost
insupportable. Joseph Roberts, in "Oriental
Illustrations," 1844.
Verse 30. Chambers of their Icings. God plagued
Pharaoh in his bedchamber: it may be because he would show that
his judgments can penetrate the greatest privacy; for the field,
and the hall, and the bed chamber, and the closet are all one to
God. It is like enough that it would not move Pharaoh much that
his borders were filled with frogs; but they must come into his
house, and into his bed chamber. My observation is—the
greatest princes in the world if they offend God are not
exempted from judgments. Princes and great persons, are usually
exempted from the reproof of men. As for the laws, ofttimes they
are as cob webs, the great flies break through them. Who dare
say to a prince, "Thou art wicked?" Nay, one saith
concerning the Pope, it is not lawful to say, "What doth he
so?" Now when they are not within the compass of human
reproof, God strikes them. Josias Shute, in "Judgment
and Mercy: or, the Plague of Frogs," 1645.
Verse 31. Flies. This term serves to denote a
kind of insect that alights on the skin or leaves of plants, by
its bite inflicting pain in t}fe one case, and causing
destruction in the other. The swarms of flies in Egypt are
usually numerous, and excessively annoying. They alight on the
moist part of the eyelids and nostrils, and inflict wounds that
produce great pain, swelling and inflammation. They are also
ruinous to the plants in which they lay their eggs. Philo (vit.
Mos. 2 pg 110) describes the dog fly or gad fly as a grievous
pest of Egypt. Gnats and mosquitoes are also abundant and
virulent. A plague of such creatures would cause immense
suffering and desolation. James G. Murphy.
Verse 31. As an illustration of the power of flies we
give an extract from Charles Marshall's "Canadian
Dominion." "I have been told by men of unquestioned
veracity, that at midday the clouds of mosquitoes on the plains
would sometimes hide the leaders in a team of four horses from
the sight of the driver. Cattle could only be recognised by
their shape; all alike becoming black with an impenetrable crust
of mosquitoes. The line of the route over the Red River plains
would be marked by the carcases of oxen stung to death by this
insignificant foe."
Verse 31. Lice in all their coasts. The
priests, being polluted by this horrible infection, could not
stand to minister before their deities. The people could not, in
their uncleanness, be admitted within the precincts of their
temples. If they would offer sacrifice, there were no victims
fit for the purpose. Even the gods, the oxen, and goats, and
cats, were defiled with the vermin. The Egyptians not only
writhed under the loathsome scourge, but felt themselves humbled
and disgraced by it. Josephus notices this:—"Pharaoh,
"he says, "was so confounded at this new plague, that,
what with the danger, the scandal, and the nastiness of it, he
was half sorry for what he had done" (b. it. c. 14). The
plague assumed the form of a disease, being "in the
people." Ex 8:17. As Josephus says again, "The bodies
of the people bred them, and they were all covered over with
them, gnawing and tearing intolerably, and no remedy, for baths
and ointments did no good." But, however distressing to
their bodies, the foul and disgraceful character of the plague,
and the offence brought upon their religion by the defilement of
their deities and the interruption of all their religious
ceremonies, was its most offensive feature. Thomas S.
Millington.
Verse 31. Lice. Vermin of the kind is one of
the common annoyances of Egypt. Herodotus tells us (Ps 2:37)
that the priests shave their whole body every other day, that no
lice or other impure thing may adhere to them when they are
engaged in the service of the gods. It is manifest that this
species of vermin was particularly disgusting to the Egyptians. James
G. Murphy.
Verse 32. He gave them hail for rain. I had
ridden out to the excavations at Gizeh, when seeing a
large black cloud approaching, I sent a servant to the tents to
take care of them, but as it began to rain slightly I soon rode
after him myself. Shortly after my arrival a storm of wind
began; I therefore ordered the cords of the tents to be secured,
but soon a violent shower of rain came in addition, which
alarmed all our Arabs, and drove them into the rock tomb, in
which is our kitchen... Suddenly the storm became a regular
hurricane, such as, I had never witnessed in Europe, and a
hailstorm came down on us, which almost turned the day into
night... It was not long before first our common tent fell down,
and when I had hastened from that into my own, in order to hold
it from the inside, this also broke down above me. Carl
Richard Lepsius, in "Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia,
and the Peninsula of Sinai." 1853.
Verse 32. Hail. Extraordinary reports of the
magnitude of hailstones, which have fallen during storms so
memorable as to find a place in general history, have come down
from periods of antiquity more or less remote. According to the
"Chronicles, "a hailstorm occurred in the reign of
Charlemagne, in which hailstones fell which measured fifteen
feet in length by six feet in breadth, and eleven feet in
thickness; and under the reign of Tippoo Saib, hailstones equal
in magnitude to elephants are said to have fallen. Setting aside
these and like recitals as partaking rather of the character of
fable than of history, we shall find sufficient to create
astonishment in well authenticated observations on this subject.
In a hailstorm which took place in Flintshire on the 9th of
April, 1672, Halley saw hailstones which weighed five ounces.
On the 4th of May, 1697, Robert Taylor saw fall hailstones
measuring fourteen inches in circumference.
In the storm which ravaged Como on 20th August, 1787, Volta
saw hailstones which weighed nine ounces.
On 22nd May, 1822, Dr. Noggerath saw fall at Bonn hailstones
which weighed from twelve to thirteen ounces.
It appears, therefore, certain that in different countries
hailstorms have occurred in which stones weighing from half to
three quarters of a pound have fallen. Dionysius Lardner,
in "The Museum of Science and Art," 1854.
Verse 34. Locusts came, and caterpillars, and that
without number. In this country, and in all the dominions of
Prete Janni, is a very great and horrible plague, which is an
innumerable company of locusts, which eat and consume all the
corn and trees; and the number of them is so great, as it is
incredible; and with their multitude they cover the earth and
fill the air in such wise, that it is a hard matter to be able
to see the sun...We travelled five days journey through places
wholly waste and destroyed, wherein millet had been sown, which
had stalks as great as those we set in our vineyards, and we saw
them all broken and beaten down as if a tempest had been there;
and this the locusts did. The trees were without leaves, and the
bark of them was all devoured; and no grass was there to be
seen, for they had eaten up all things; and if we had not been
warned and advised to carry victual with us, we and our cattle
had perished. This country was all covered with locusts without
wings; and they told us these were the seed of them which had
eaten up all, and that as soon as their wings were grown they
would seek after the old ones. The number of them was so great,
that I shall not speak of it, because I shall not be believed:
but this! will say, that I saw men, women, and children sit as
forlorn and dead among the locusts. Samuel Purchas,
1577-1628.
Verse 34. Locusts and caterpillars. God did not
bring the same plague twice; but when there was occasion for
another, it was still a new one; for he has many arrows in his
quiver. Matthew Henry.
Verse 34. Without number. A swarm of locusts,
which was observed in India in 1825, occupied a space of forty
English square miles, contained at least forty millions of
locusts in one line, and cast a long shadow on the earth. And
Major Moore thus describes an immense army of these animals
which ravaged the Mahratta country: "The column they
composed extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it when
on the wing, that like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun, so
that no shadow was cast by any object." Brown, in his
travels in Africa, states that an area of nearly two thousand
square miles was literally covered by them; and Kirby and Spence
mention that a column of them was so immense, that they took
four hours to fly over the spot where the observer stood. M.
Kalisch.
Verse 34. Came...and that without number.
Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud
Of congregated myriads number less;
The rushing of whose wings was as the sound
Of some broad river, headlong in its course,
Plunged from a mountain summit; or the roar
Of a wild ocean in the autumnal storm,
Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks,
Onward they came, the winds impelled them on.
—Robert Southey, 1774-1843.
Verse 36. He smote also all the firstborn. Did
you hear that cry? It is the moment of midnight, and some
tragedy is enacted in that Egyptian dwelling, for such an
unearthly shriek! and it is repeated and reechoed, as doors
burst open and frantic women rush into the street, and, as the
houses of priests and physicians are beset, they only shake
their heads in speechless agony, and point to the death sealed
features of their own firstborn. Lights are flashing at the
palace gates, and flitting through the royal chambers; and as
king's messengers hasten through the town enquiring where the
two venerable Hebrew brothers dwell, the whisper flies,
"The royal prince is dead!" Be off, ye sons of Jacob!
speed from your house of bondage, ye oppressed and injured
Israelites! And in their eagerness to "thrust forth"
the terrible because Heaven protected race, they press upon them
gold and jewels, and bribe them to be gone. James Hamilton.
Verse 37. There was not one feeble person among
their tribes, when Israel came out of Egypt; there was while
dwelling there: so there shall be no feeble saint go to
heaven, but they shall be perfect when carried hence by the
angels of God, though they complain of feebleness here.
"There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an
old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die
an hundred years old; "Isa 65:20. As there is in all dying
or departed persons a great shooting in their stature observed;
so is there in the soul much more. The least infant shoots in
the instant of dissolution to such a perfect knowledge of God,
and such a measure of grace is not attainable here, that he is
"as David; "and the tallest Christian comes to such a
height, that he is "as an angel of God, "Zec 7:8. John
Sheffield, in "The Rising Sun," 1654.
Verse 37. There was not one feeble person among
their tribes. They came out all in good health, and brought
not with them any of the diseases of Egypt. Surely never was the
like; that among so many thousands there was not one sick! so
false was the representation which the Jews' enemies in after
ages gave of the matter, that they were all sick of a leprosy,
or some loathsome disease, and therefore the Egyptians thrust
them out of their land. Matthew Henry.
Verse 37. Feeble person. A totterer or stumbler.
The word denotes a person unfit for military service. Joseph
Addison Alexander.
Verse 39. In the army of Alexander the Great, the
march was begun by a great beacon being set upon a pole as a
signal from head quarters, so that "the fire was seen at
night, the smoke in the daytime; "and the plan is still
found in use amongst the caravans of Arabia. It is probable
enough, in that unchanging land, that such may have been the
custom at the time of the Exodus, and that God taught the people
by parable in this wise, as well as by fact, that he was their
true leader, and heaven the general pavilion, whence the order
of march was enjoined. Neale and Littledale.
Verse 39.
When Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out of the land of bondage came,
Her father's God before her moved,
An awful guide in smoke and flame.
By day, along the astonished lands,
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia's crimson sands
Returned the fiery column's glow.
There rose the choral hymn of praise,
And trump and timbrel answered keen,
And Zion's daughters poured their lays,
With priest's and warrior's voice between.
But present still, though now unseen,
When brightly shines the prosperous day,
Be thoughts of Thee a cloudy screen,
To temper the deceitful ray!
And oh, when stoops on Judah's path,
In shade and storm, the frequent night,
Be Thou—long suffering, slow to wrath—
A burning and a shining light.
—Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832.
Verse 40. Quails. The quail is met with
abundantly in Syria and Judaea, and there seems to be little
doubt of its identity with the quails so frequently mentioned in
the Holy Scriptures. "We have, "says Tristram, "a
clear proof of the identity of the common quail with the Hebrew selac,
in its Arabic name, salwa, from a root signifying `to be
fat'—very descriptive of the round, plump form and fat flesh
of the quail... It migrates in vast flocks, and regularly
crosses the Arabian desert, flying for the most part at night,
and when the birds settle they are so utterly exhausted that
they may be captured in any numbers by the hand. Notwithstanding
their migratory habits, they instinctively select the shortest
sea passages, and avail themselves of any island as a halting
place. Thus in Spring and Autumn they are slaughtered in numbers
on Malta and many of the Greek islands, very few being seen till
the period of migration comes round. They also fly with the
wind, never facing it like many other birds." "The
Israelites `spread them out' when they had taken them before
they were sufficiently refreshed to escape; exactly as Herodotus
tells us that the Egyptians were in the habit of doing with
quails—drying them in the sun." Brehm mentions having
been a witness to the arrival of a huge flock of quails upon the
coast of North Africa, and tells us that the weary birds fell at
once to the ground completely exhausted by their toilsome
journey, and remained therefore some minutes as though
stupefied. Cassell's "Book of Birds."
Verse 40.
Brought from his store, at sute of Israel,
Quails, in whole beavies each remove pursue;
Himself from skies their hunger to repel
Candies the grass with sweet congealed dew.
He wounds the rock, the rock doth wounded, swell;
Swelling affords new streams to channels new,
All for God's mindful will can not be dryven,
From sacred word once to his Abraham given.
—Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586.
Verse 44. They inherited the labour of the people.
In like manner the heavenly Canaan is enjoyed by the saints
without any labour of theirs; this inheritance is not of the
law, nor of the works of it; it is the gift of God. Ro 4:14
6:23. John Gill.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1.
1. Praise God for former mercies.
2. Pray for further mercies.
3. Publish his famous mercies.
Verse 1. A series of holy exercises.
"Give thanks"—
"call upon his name"—
"make known"—
"sing"—
"talk"—
"glory"—
"rejoice"—
"seek"—
"remember".
Verse 2.
1. The pleasure of talking to God. "Sing, "etc.;
making melody in the heart.
2. The duty of talking of God. "Talk ye, "etc. G.R.
Verse 2. The Christian's table talk.
Verse 3.
1. Those who find: or—"glory ye, "etc.
2. Those who seek: or—"rejoice."
Verse 3 (second clause). Let the seeker rejoice that
there is such a God to seek, that he invites us to seek, that he
moves us to seek, enables us to seek, and promises to be found
of us. The tendency of the seeker is to despond, but there are
many grounds of comfort.
Verse 4. How can we seek the Lord's strength?
1. By desiring to be subject to it.
2. By being supported by it.
3. By being equipped with it for service.
4. By seeing its results upon others.
Verse 4. Threefold seeking.
1. The Lord for mercy.
2. His strength for service.
3. His face for happiness. A.G. Brown.
Verse 4 (last clause). Seeking the Lord the perpetual
occupation of a believer.
Verse 5. Themes for memory.
1. What God has done.
2. What he has said.
Verse 5. Our memory and God's memory.
"Remember." "He hath remembered."
Verse 7. God's relation to his elect and to all
mankind.
Verse 9. The making, swearing, and confirming of the
covenant. See our comment on these verses with the passages
referred to.
Verse 12. Comfort to the few. The typical and
spiritual Israel few at first. A few in the ark peopled the
world. Small companies have done wonders. Christ's presence is
promised to two or three. God saith not by many or by few, etc.
Verse 13.
1. God's people may be often removed.
2. They can never be injured.
3. God's property in them will not be renounced.
Verse 14. Dr. T. Goodwin has an excellent sermon on
these verses, entitled "The Interest of England, "in
which he condenses the history of the world, to show, that those
nations which have persecuted and afflicted the people of God
have invariably been broken in pieces. (Goodwin's Works,
volume 12 pg 34-60, Nichol's edition).
Verse 15. In what respect Abraham was a prophet, and
how far believers are the same.
Verse 16.
1. All things come at the call of God. He called for plenty,
and it came, for famine, and it came; for captivity, and it
came; for deliverance, and it came.
2. The most unlikely means of accomplishing an end with man
is often the direct way with God. He fulfilled the promise of
Canaan to Abraham by banishing him from it; of plenty, by
sending a famine; of freedom, by bringing into captivity. G.R.
Verse 19. The duration of our troubles, the testing
power of the promise, the comfortable issue which is secured to
us.
Verse 24 (second clause). In what respects grace can
make believers stronger than their enemies.
Verse 25.
1. The natural hatred of the world to the church.
2. God's permitting it to be shown. When? Why?
3. The subtle manner in which this enmity seeks its object.
Verse 32. He gave them hail for rain. Judgment
substituted for mercy.
Verse 37 (first clause). Wealth found upon us after
affliction.
Verse 37 (second clause). A consummation to be
desired. This was the direct result of the divine presence. The
circumstances out of which it grew were hard labour, and
persecution. It enabled them to leave Egypt, to journey far, to
carry burdens, to fight enemies, etc.
Verse 39.
1. A dark cloud of providence is the guide of the people of
God by day.
2. A bright cloud of promises is their guide by night. G.R.
Verse 39. The Lord's goodness exemplified in our
varying conditions.
1. For prosperity—a cloud.
2. For adversity—a light. A good text would be found in
"light in the night."
Verse 40.
1. God often gives in love what is not asked. So the bread
from heaven which was beyond all they could ask or think.
2. He sometimes gives in anger what is asked. They asked for
flesh to eat—"and he brought quails."—G.R.
Verse 41. We have,
1. A type of the person of Christ, in the rock.
(a) Unsightly as Horeb—"When we shall see him, there
is no beauty, "etc. (Isa 43:2).
(b) Firm and immovable "Who is a rock, save our
God?" (2Sa 22:32).
2. A type of the sufferings of Christ, in the smitten rock.
(a) Smitten by the rod of the Law.
(b) Smitten to the heart.
3. A type of the benefits of Christ, in the water flowing
from the rock—pure, refreshing, perpetual, abundant. James
Bennett, 1828.
Verse 41.
1. The miraculous energy of God's grace in the conversion of
a sinner: "He opened the rock, and the waters gushed
out."
2. The effect in relation to others, which demonstrates at
once the excellence and the reality of the miracle in ourselves:
"They ran in the dry places like a river."—Thomas
Dale, 1836.
Verse 41.
1. The grand source—the rock opened.
2. The liberal stream—"gushed out".
3. The continued flow—"in dry places".
Verse 42.
1. The grand source—the rock opened.
2. The liberal stream—"gushed out".
3. The continued law—"in dry places".
Verse 45. Obedience to God the design of his mercies
to us.